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You possess a specialized area of knowledge, generally narrower than that of a full-fledged scholar. Lore acts as a catchall skill for information, similar to how Craft handles artisanal skills and Profession handles professional skills.

The category of a Lore skill can vary widely from that of another Lore skill. It could be regional (such as a city or country), about a discipline (such as cryptography), or related to a narrow set of people (such as famous musicians). The scope of region-based Lore skills can also refer to specific subcategories, such as taverns in a particular region.

A Lore skill must be narrow—far narrower than the most relevant Knowledge skill. The broader the scope of a given category of Lore, the shallower your knowledge is on that topic. If you know about taverns in a wide region, you know less about each of them than you would if you had Lore in taverns of a specific city. Lore skills normally can’t be used to identify monsters the way Knowledge skills can, unless they refer to a specific type of monster (such as owlbears or vampires). If Lore involves a common, broad category of race or monster, it needs to be more specific. Lore (elves) would be too broad, as would Lore (dragons).

Check: Lore skills use the same DC scale as Knowledge skills: DC 10 to answer easy questions, DC 15 for basic questions, and DC 20 to 30 for really tough questions. In many cases, Lore can substitute for a Knowledge skill, such as Lore (elven history) filling in for Knowledge (history) in a check involving elves. At the GM’s discretion, a player might be able to apply a Lore skill that’s only partially related to a subject with a –5 penalty, such as using a Lore skill about a region to recall information about a particular city in that region or applying knowledge of distilling to winemaking.

The table below describes some examples of Lore skills alongside examples of skills that would be too broad. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and the GM has final say on whether a particular Lore skill is appropriate.

Table: Lore Skill Examples

Appropriate Lore Skills

Inappropriate Choices

A particular small city

Settlements (or smaller settlement)

One district of a large city or metropolis

An entire large city or metropolis

A particular monastery

Monasteries

Taverns in a region

Taverns

Bandits in a region

Banditry

Famous battles in a region

Famous battles

The spice trade

Commerce

Cats

Animals

Drow matriarchs

Drow

Dwarven history

Dwarves

Frost giants

Giants

A particular deity

Gods

Dagon

Demon lords

Phlegethon

Hell

Military commanders

Warfare

Famous singers

Music

Infernal contracts

Devils

Evocations

Spells

Silver and mithral

Metals

Tea

Beverages

Trees

Plants

Tattoos

Art

Bards: Lore is treated as a Knowledge skill for the purposes of bardic knowledge and lore master, as well as similar abilities found in other classes, creatures, and archetypes. This applies only to Lore skills in which a character is trained. In other circumstances, use the more relevant Knowledge skill.